PLAY THERAPY FOR CHILDREN IN HOLLY SPRINGS

Support for your child

At The Growing Place: Counseling & Play Therapy we provide age-appropriate counseling services and meet your child where they are with acceptance, empathy, and understanding. Specializing in anxiety, life transitions, behavioral concerns, and trauma.

Do you feel like you’ve been tiptoeing around your child lately?

As a parent you may be struggling to get through the day without feeling defeated, lost, or confused.

Maybe your child quickly becomes upset and will either cry, scream, or show the “bigness” of their feelings with their body whenever something doesn’t quite happen their way, and it takes hours to help calm them down… And you may have even caught yourself thinking or saying out loud that that your child will never change.

Life can feel different than the way it does today.
Play therapy can help.

It may feel impossible now, but this won’t last forever.

Your child, and you, can start to better understand their feelings and their needs.

Their big feelings and behaviors can begin to lessen over time.

And I can help your child, and you, get there together.

Play therapy can help your child:

Child therapist holding two puppets, a dinosaur and another displaying anger

Reduce anxiety and stress by providing a safe and supportive environment where they can express themselves freely.
Improve their communication skills by learning how to express their feelings in a healthy and appropriate way.
Develop problem-solving skills by learning how to think creatively and come up with solutions that work for them.
Boost their self-esteem and feel more confident in themselves and their abilities.
Build stronger relationships with their parents, siblings, and peers. It can help them learn how to interact with others in a healthy and positive way.

Throughout this process, I will help to tailor each step to your child’s unique needs and circumstances.

In the playroom, I will meet your child where they are developmentally and with curiosity and delight to allow your child to develop the skills they need to thrive in life.

FAQS

What others have wondered about play therapy

Play therapy materials in a child therapist's playroom.

This is a hard question to answer and yet probably the one most important to you. Our first response is that all children and caregivers can benefit from play therapy. Research shows that play therapy is effective in building parent-child relationships, reducing parenting stress, and increasing a child’s self-concept. These are goals for all children and parents even when children are not exhibiting behavioral problems. Our second response is that play therapy has been shown to be effective with minor to severe emotional and behavioral problems. If your child is experiencing moodiness, engaging in worrisome behaviors, or just doesn’t seem like themselves, then you should seek a consultation to determine with a therapist if your child would benefit from play therapy. (Empathy Well 2023)
I will meet with your child individually in the playroom weekly and they are the one who gets to choose what they will talk or play about (just how you would in your own talk therapy). There are a variety of materials and toys available for use in session. Sometimes they may engage in play that uses big body movements which can make some noise in the playroom- please don’t be alarmed.
To a certain extent- yes! Children are allowed to use the toys and materials in session in most ways that they like in order to express themselves how they need to. However, it is also important that your child, the therapist, and the materials are kept safe. The therapist will determine when limits in the playroom need to be set.
“Play therapy is a time that you get to come to a playroom to talk or play with toys in lots of the ways you’d like. In play therapy, you will meet a therapist, Andrea, and who you’ll be in the playroom with. Play therapy is a place where you can share whatever is on your mind or play in ways to share how you feel.”
Click here to access a social story we created for parents to share with their child when preparing them for their first visit.
Click the link below to schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation. I will ask you to briefly share about your concerns and we will discuss availability and review some practice policies, and session fees. If you determine that I am a good fit for your child’s needs, then we will schedule a 90 minute initial parent session where we will discuss family history, your concerns in further detail, and your hopes for therapy.

More questions? Check out my FAQs page.